After a candlelight Christmas concert a few years ago, a singer asked Redlands choral conductor Jeffrey H. Rickard “what happens to the Christmas flame after we blow out the candles?”

“I had to think about that a little bit,” Rickard said. “Then I told her, `It goes into you, and you carry it out into the world and give it to other people.’ ”

That makes a good metaphor for the concerts that Rickard and his Redlands Community Chorus, plus guest a cappella camarata Ensemble XXI, will offer Dec. 7, 8 and 9 at three Southern California churches.

“A Concert of Anthems, Readings and Carols of the Season” aims to rekindle the spirit of Rickard’s 37 years directing the annual Feast of Lights at the University of Redlands, and to take it on the road.

The program includes both choral and instrumental music, including familiar carols for choirs and audience to sing together. Readings come from a variety of sacred and secular sources.

The first concert is in Redlands, at 8 p.m. Dec. 7, at First Congregational Church, 2 W. Olive St. The second is at Faith Lutheran Church in Yucaipa, 12449 California Street, at 8 p.m. on Dec. 8. The third is at 4 p.m. on Dec. 9, at St. Rita Catholic Church, 321 N. Baldwin Ave., Sierra Madre. The concerts are free.

Rickard retired from the University of Redlands in 2008, so no longer directs the Feast of Lights, which this year is Nov. 30 through Dec. 3 at the University’s Memorial Chapel. At the same time, he has no intention of putting the music, the spirit, the feeling or his musical family behind him.

“That won’t happen,” he said. “It’s too important that people get to hear this message.”

Dennis Neufeld of Redlands, a tenor with Ensemble XXI, agrees. He first sang with Rickard as a student at the University of Redlands in the middle 1980s. He said the material he has learned, especially the a cappella music, has become part of him in a way that is hard to express except as sound itself.

“We do this for ourselves,” he said. “But if it’s only for ourselves, that becomes so internal, almost insular. I have a feeling it reaches completion only when we take it to other people. That makes it special.”

For many in the choir, concepts of harmony and family and spirituality intertwine, and it’s hard to know where one ends and the others begin.

Soprano Peggy McMeans of Redlands has sung with Ensemble XXI for three years, and said she connects with Rickard’s musical and spiritual perspectives.

“Jeff has a gift for choosing the right music, finding the spirit of whatever music he’s doing, and putting the pieces together in ways that are deeply meaningful,” she said. “It’s part of him.”

Her favorite piece in the concert, she said, is the opening number, the first thing audiences will hear: “Ukrainian Alleluia.”

“It’s an inner wail,” she said.

A tribute to millions killed in Ukraine during the 20th century, the song’s mournful sonorities are reminiscent of the human condition throughout the ages, a mortal sadness transcended by belief that something better is ahead – which for many is the whole idea behind Christmas.

Rickard and his ensembles plan music that is by turns sweet, portentous, joyful, wistful, sprightly, solemn and jazzy, but always expresses the feeling and focus of Christmas, a new light in the world, and connections among the family of humankind.

That resonates with Renata Quijada of Redlands, who sings alto and also will play the violin in the concerts. Most of her family is in Ohio, so her choir friends fulfill that supportive role for her, she said.

“When you’re singing together and depending on each other, it’s easy to feel like that,” she said. “I’ll never forget how it feels to sing with this group.”

One Ensemble XXI soprano was born into the local choral scene and grew up immersed in harmony – she is the director’s granddaughter, Meg Rickard. The 15-year-old Redlands East Valley High student is the group’s youngest member. Family feeling goes without saying, but the a cappella music itself gets to her in a way that surprised her at first.

“I knew I liked to sing, but I wasn’t expecting the reaction I had at my first concert,” she said.

During that concert, she said, she got lost in the music during “O nata lux de lumine,” which means “O light born of light.” She was not lost in a bad way, but as if she had become part of the rising melody itself.

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